girls your mother never warned you about
by rubberbisquit
Summary: up to 2x05.  Simon is starting to feel like a superhero.  Alisha is starting to feel like her whole world is falling apart piece by piece.  She needs saving again.
1. Chapter 1

When the beers are all finished and Nathan extinguishes his cigarette, he suggests breakfast to the group. Some proper fry ups and all of the juicy, disgusting details about Simon's evening. Still smiling, Simon just nods. He feels good, real good. When Nathan throws an arm around his shoulder in camaraderie he feels accepted, for real, for the first time in his life.

The other three bow out for various reasons. Simon spends about thirty seconds contemplating the hurt look that's hovering on Alisha's face before Nathan drags his attention back to breakfast. Simon is buying; Alisha and her broken-hearted expression are forgotten in the excitement of the moment.

* * *

She hides her hurt away in his apartment. Proper Simon's apartment, the one she's in love with, not the poor fool who's just had his first go. She buries her face in his sheets and cries until she can't remember why she ever thought this whole affair was a good idea. How could he have, knowing what was coming?

She prays to whatever god will listen to make this pain go away. She knows no one is listening and cries harder.

* * *

He's just thirty six hours deflowered when everything he thinks is right in his life ends. Jessica can't even bother giving him a smile as she tells him she can't do this, whatever this is, with him. Circumstances being what they are, he will eventually acknowledge that she is probably right. At this moment though, all he can think of is escape. He's out the door before the coupon he was holding hits the floor.

Jessica's retreating figure, her hurried steps, makes him wish that he could turn back time. He'd be a right proper Doctor if he could manage time travel, he thinks.

* * *

Hope leads her to his laptop. Some sliver of the future with the two of them. That's all she's looking for. She finds nothing. Everything has been wiped leaving behind a clean OS. She cries again in frustration. Sometimes she thinks she'll never catch the sound of his breath exhaling again. At moments like this she thinks she'll never be able to stop hearing his life slip away in that last gasp.

She so desperately wants to wrap herself in his arms and forget the last few days.

She falls asleep in his bed with his pillow crushed to her face.

* * *

He should still be grinning, she thinks, having just had his first real sexual experience. But Simon isn't smiling as he pulls on his jump suit. She can almost feel the misery pouring off him. Alisha approaches slowly, concerned. Her hand on his shoulder doesn't startle him. He can't even look her fully in the eye when he glances back at her. Her heart breaks all over again for him.

She apologizes before she even realizes she's doing it or what she's apologizing for. His hard stare, the one Nathan so easily mocked, cuts through her. This is what the future Simon knew was coming. This pain in his life. For whatever reasons. It was shit of him to spoil the punch line, she thinks, but if this is what happened then that means they're still on the path to each other. This thought puts a soft smile on her face that the Simon in front of her isn't expecting. Alisha hates and loves both the future and present Simon at that moment.


	2. Chapter 2

There's a large part of her that misses him with every ounce of her being. She hears him everywhere. In the shower his voice slips through the water droplets and her skin prickles just remembering the sorts of things they will do in showers, one day. She will always glance behind her, expecting his level gaze staring back. He is never there and it breaks her heart every time.

With each passing day, after their community service is over and they're famous like she knew they'd be, she loses pieces of herself. These parts of her break off, little by little, because she can't hold herself together without him. The Simon of the here and now does almost nothing to fill the gaps his future self has left.

He is a far cry from what she needs and it feels like she's dying for lack of her Simon. She hates herself now for this weakness but she can't help it. She's never fallen so hard and so fast for anything. His touch had become her addiction and she's cut off from it. She's unable to build upon what he left her with so that all she's got left is herself. Before Simon she'd only ever really had herself. The sting of his absence is becoming too much. She thinks she really can't do this alone. She can't wait for him any longer.

She's walking on the estate when she comes to this realization and it hits her so hard that she can't help but crumple to the ground. It's been a while since she's been overcome with tears. She doesn't try to stop them.

Alisha hears his footsteps running on the roof over her head and she cries harder. Missing someone is like a frigid winter wind, she thinks. It's everywhere; no escaping the loss and with each mighty gust it steals your breath for a moment or four. She's gasping now, unable to catch her breath.

Lost in the moment and feeling utterly alone she doesn't hear the words of concern from the strange man approaching her and she has no time to react when his hand comes down to shake her shoulder.

She's still trying to stop herself from hyperventilating in emotional pain when she realizes that she's buried under two hundred pounds of stranger who desperately needs to shag her as soon as possible. Her cries become screams.

_SIMON!_ Simon will come and save her. He has to. When the man on top of her drags her skirt up and her panties down she feels herself utterly shatter. Simon won't be coming to save her.

* * *

Simon is learning, and that's a start he supposes. If the bruised elbow and skinned knee are any indication it'll be a long time before he'll ever be able to touch SuperHoodie's abilities at parkour but he'll be damned if he doesn't feel like a superhero for real this time. The concrete roof top blurs under his new sneakers. He reaches a ledge and keeps going. The feeling of total weightlessness brings a grin to his face. The other roof top is approaching quickly and he reacts instinctively, tucking into a roll when he hits his target. His body somersaults then comes to a jarring halt against an air vent. His breath is slammed from his chest.

He lies on his back for a moment and catalogs any possible injury. Nothing feels broken. His elbow throbs a little harder and his head is pounding but no serious damage. He grins so hard that his face starts to ache.

He looks back, over his head, at the jump he just managed. Has to be at least 10 meters. A new personal best for him. Simon climbs back to his feet and bounces on his toes. He's fine. With a laugh of pure exhilaration, he's off again.

He's approaching Alisha's place. He contemplates dropping by just to say hello. They're getting along quite well now and he thinks that maybe she might possibly place him in that all-mighty friend category that he's been striving for. He'd like to be put into another category all together by her but that's so unlikely it's laughable.

His steps take him down a roof and across a narrow alley. He's clinging to the side of the building, a glass overhang blocking his view of the walk below him. Its then that he hears the crying. Someone is clearly in pain right under him. It's a girl and she sounds like her entire world is ending. He hesitates; what if he ends up frightening her? He's debating the merits of investigation when a second voice enters the mix. Male. Clearly aroused. The crying turns to screams and Simon loses all feeling in his body.

_Alisha._

He takes three quick side jumps and lands after the end of the overhang. His landing is a little off and he's positive he's turned invisible for some reason. He's facing the wrong way; he whirls and feels a cold terror rush through his entire body.

It's definitely Alisha and she's in trouble. His instincts take over again and he's on the man attacking Alisha in the blink of an eye. He grabs the man by the back of his shirt and he jerks backwards as hard as he possibly can. The man is tenacious however and both he and Alisha are dragged up. The man doesn't even acknowledge his presence; he merely adjusts to standing and pulls Alisha in closer.

Simon is two moments away from a full rage-induced panic. The only thing he can think is to get this guy away from Alisha; he has to save her. He brings his fist up and strikes out at the man's head. The man is stunned and Simon uses the distraction to grab him again. The man comes away clean this time. The both of them stumble back into the wall. Now free of Alisha the man looks around in confusion. Simon decks him again, hard across the face and well enough this time that the man goes down.

Simon dismisses him entirely and turns to find Alisha in a heap on the ground. She's not moving; her eyes are closed and she's not making any noises. He falls down beside her and is so close to touching her before he thinks better of it. He, who has made a point of knowing as much about everything that he can, has no idea what to do.

Alisha's eyes flicker open. She shows no outward reaction to his presence. He's still invisible _dammit_. Her lips part and his name, _his name_, sounds like a plea coming from her. She reaches out; her hand comes against his forearm clumsily. He tries to tell her no and pull away but he realizes that nothing happens. The rush of endorphins he vaguely remembers from their last contacts never comes.

Simon looks down at the place where her soft hand rests on his arm, dumbfounded.

Behind him, he hears the man rousing. Alisha's eyes widen as she hears the noise. _Save her!_ Simon pulls her up and into his arms. He thinks of nothing but escape. Under his feet, the pavement blurs as he runs. Alisha grabs on to him around his neck and she holds so tight he thinks he might pass out from lack of proper oxygen.

He runs on.


	3. Chapter 3

Despite this major development, Alisha shuts down completely around their friends. Simon can't stop thinking about the feel of her body against his and the look of total trust in her eyes when he dropped her off at home. He'd offered to come in and stay with her for a while but she'd only shook her head. He desperately needed to talk about this, whatever this was, and she shut him down with a door to his face.

When they see each other next they say nothing about what's happened between the two of them. It's like an unspoken agreement. There's too much on everyone's plate to worry about how Simon's ability cancels out hers. It's an important development but there's just too much going on. Instead she refuses to socialize with any of them and they see her only on the weekend when they're scheduled to perform.

Simon spends his free time re-watching videos during the time they spent doing their community service. He remembers each of the moments he's saved to film and savors them fully. He hates how exposed they've become through the press and he feels like someday soon it'll all come crashing down on them.

The day he decides to check up on Alisha it kind of does, for him at least.

He arrives at her place as she's departing. Still practicing his high rise skills he's just in time to see her lock up the apartment behind her and set off towards the car park. For some reason, he follows without announcing his presence. It's a hard habit to break, people watching. From these heights he's largely ignored unlike on the street where everyone knows his face. He's not surprised to see Alisha pull the hood of her orange sweatshirt up, discouraging stray and possibly recognizing glances.

She walks for ten minutes before coming to a stop outside a large, metal sliding door. He watches, fascinated, as she pulls out a chain from around under her shirt and opens the door up with the keys on the chain. It slides shut behind her and locks with a definitive click.

Simon knows, he knows, that this is none of his business but Alisha's got him worried. And she's his friend now. He doesn't want anything bad to happen to her. Not ever.

He finds a roof top access to an elevator and rides it all the way to where it ends.

Understandably Alisha is waiting from him on the other side of the door when he opens it. The elevator is noisy and he has no doubt that she's heard him the four floors up he's traveled from. She gazes expectantly at the elevator car and he is startled to realize that he's invisible again. "Come out Simon, I know you're there."

He's practiced coming in and out of his ability many times; even in public more recently, and yet this sudden lack of control around Alisha is quite perplexing. He focuses and she gives him a sad smile. Doesn't say another word, just walks back into the room.

Simon takes the place in, notes that they're alone and there are an awful lot of timers on the wall. And photos. There are photos plastering the wall where the timers are set and he can't help but look.

Somehow it doesn't surprise him that they're photos of himself and his friends. He's coming to a conclusion here. "This is his place isn't it? His lair?" Alisha glances over at him from the computer she's sat down at and gives him a sharp look. "SuperHoodie. I always knew he'd have to have somewhere to recover but I could never follow him. I'm not as good as he is."

She ignores him now, concentrating on a chunk of text on the screen so he wanders and explores. Its nothing complex and everything in this place has a purpose. He feels a warmth of shared experience sneak into his heart when he thinks, this is what his bed room is like. He'll never tell but he looks up to their resident superhero. This developed similarity between SuperHoodie and himself makes him happy, he realizes.

"Where is he then?"

Simon glances back at Alisha, expecting another cool dismissal. She's shot straight up in the chair still looking forward. He's upset her. Why has he upset her? "Alisha?" He realizes she's crying again. Her shoulders shudder as she draws in a breath and he feels utterly useless.

When he touches her this time, he's not invisible and he makes sure that his hand doesn't come in contact her skin. She shakes harder at the gesture. "What's wrong?"

She turns her eyes full of pain to him and he knows. "He's dead. And you knew who he was. What happened to him?" She just stares and he starts to put more pieces together. "He was the one that saved you, wasn't he? When the crazy video game guy chased you."

It all makes so much sense. He remembers how she'd paled when he'd discussed the discovery of the burned body in the warehouse they'd been held in. He'd thought she was just remembering the kidnapping but it was so much more. He realizes now that everything was contained in that burnt corpse for her.

He'd been so oblivious. Clearly she'd found out SuperHoodie's identity. Had they been together? Here? He looks around the room with new eyes. She lead him to her dead lover's apartment. Where she'd been content to wallow in her misery while her friends moved on; moved away from her.

This time it's his lips and her name but it still sounds like a plea to his ears. His change to invisible is completely intentional this time and he pulls her close. They've been fools with her. He's been a fool. He's been caught up with the thing with Jessica and his new found acceptance. The new camaraderie seems diminished when held against the sorrow Alisha is showing him.

Her face is buried into his neck when she starts to mumble. He understands nothing that has begun to pour out yet when he tries to get her to lean back and speak to his face she holds tighter. She just keeps talking and none of it makes sense to him. He catches fragments. She misses him. She can't go on like this anymore. She is broken.

Simon rubs her back and has to stop trying to decipher the riddles Alisha is spouting. This is the first time in his life that he's ever held a woman as she breaks down. He's once more at a loss of action. His right hand comes up and holds the back of her head. It feels so natural holding her and she cries even harder, great racking sobs that shake the both of them. Beneath her, the computer chair she's sitting on shifts and suddenly they're on the floor. Alisha pays no mind, just continues to hold on.

Simon just wants to know what to do. When she presses up against him, practically sitting in his lap now, and begs him not to let go he obliges. This is the moment when he decides he doesn't really want to be like SuperHoodie after all. He never wants to cause this kind of pain in Alisha. Ever. She cries out her loneliness and hurt into his favorite jacket and he doesn't mind at all.

Simon feels Alisha's hand on his neck, right at the point where his pulse has started to pound an erratic beat. He feels his heart skip; he knows that his heart will never be okay again. Not now that he's been privileged enough to see this part of Alisha. She is moving in his arms. Her cries have died down and she no longer shakes. Instead she climbs further into his lap and rests her forehead against his own. He's staring into her face and she's got her eyes closed. He'd like to look her in the eyes and tell her everything will be okay but that'd be impossible at the moment and he's fine with that.

"Simon. I lost him. He left and I couldn't stop him. I didn't want him to go. Ever." She's squeezing her eyes shut tighter but it doesn't stop a few stray tears from dripping out. He still holds her head in one hand and starts rubbing circles on her back again with the other. She draws a labored gasp of air down into herself and releases it slowly. "But, he had to. As much for my sake as for yours."

His brow wrinkles in confusion. "For me? Why me? I'm nothing special."

She smiles sadly and laughs quietly. Her eyes open finally; they're red-rimmed and cloudy but he thinks she looks beautiful. "For all of us. He had to let us learn how to be who we're meant to be." From the way she looks past his left ear he knows she absolutely can't see him. "He has been watching us. I can't tell you how he knows everything. You wouldn't believe me anyway."

His own hand raises and cups her cheek. She leans into that touch and looks as if her life depends on it. "I will always believe what you tell me Alisha."

"It doesn't matter Simon." She pulls her hand back and wipes at her nose with the sleeve of the hoodie. "We'll all find out soon enough." Satisfied with cleaning herself up mildly she puts her head down on his chest and just breaths.

His eyes catch movement on the wall in front of them.

One of the timers has started counting up from zero.

~fin~


End file.
